Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 September 1945 — Page 12

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then long past the age of normal retirement and was a

‘Mr. Hull.

. UNDERSECRETARY OF WAR PATTERSON was a nat-

* + bloodshed or loss of time, solving problems faster than his

The Indianapolis Times

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“PAGE 12 = Wednesday, Sept. 19, 1945 ROY W. HOWARD = WALTER LECKRONE HENRY W. MANZ ‘Editor Business Manager

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Give Light and the People Will Fina Their Own Way

SECRETARY STIMSON

GECRETARY OF WAR STIMSON has resigned. It’s hard ~ to think of him in retirement, even though he will be 78 next Friday. A generation ago he was secretary of war under President Taft. He came back to the same cabinet post after 27 years—a record. All in all he has served in high office under five administrations, three Republican and two Democratic. President Coolidge used him to solve the Nicaraguan problem, and as governor general of the Philippines. He was President Hoover's secretary of state. Though he was

Republican, in 1940 he was chosen by President Roosevelt for the arduous task of preparing our peacetime military establishment for probable war. To that critical service he brought only his experience as an officer in the first world ‘war and his training in earlier cabinets, but also two other things which were much needed. One was widespread public confidence. The other was the capacity to say “no” in an administration of too many

yes-men, ” » . ~ ” ”

H's ability and integrity have served his country well through this war. If the big powers had listened to him as secretary of state, Japan would have been stopped when she first broke the peace in Manchuria in 1931 and there might have been no war in Europe and Asia. Fritin] It is significant that the two ablest cabinet officers of this period have been elder statesmen—Mr, Stimson and A government composed chiefly of old men is always undesirable, and in times of rapid change can be dangerous, But a government without the wisdom of some elder statesmen lacks the balance which only long experience and tested character can give. America has discovered that several times, as when John Quincy Adams contributed so much in congress after his cabinet and White House career. Now that the value of elder statesmen has been rediscovered dgaip in the distinguished services of Henry Stimson and Cordel-Hull, America should remember, ty

SECRETARY PATTERSON

ural selection as successor to Secretary Stimson. But a more partisan President than Mr. Truman would have ignored that—with the war over ‘and the congressional election coming up next year. Actually it was good politics, as well as statesmanship, to put in the able Mr. Patterson. He is the only man, except Mr, Stimson, familiar with all the affairs of the war department. g In this transitional period of military demobilization, industrial reconversion, congressional investigations, reorganization and probable unification of the defense services in the atomic age, even the best new man would have difficulty catching up with the job.

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HOW TO GET HELP

TODAY'S paradox is that thousands are without jobs: while thousands of jobs are open. Some of that may be explained by the fact that war workers, who have gone several years without vacations, are taking them now while they can afford it. But much of it, the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce pointed out yesterday, #§ due to the fact that employers are not listing their job openings with the U. S. employment service. That may be because employers previously not classed as essential and thus not eligible to USES service have not changed personnel recruiting methods. Or it may be that those employers who have had ‘to abide by manpower rules during the war are so tired of it that they don't want any connection with a government agency if they can help it. In efther case, the employers are the losers. They are not getting the workers they need for reconversion. And they are laying their unemployment compensation funds, which is money from their own tills, open to a heavier-than-necessary drain from workers who can’t find the jobs they want. To get people back to work and to save the unemployment compensation fund for the time when the jobless really need the money most, employers would be wise to follow the State Chamber of Commerce recommendation to list their job openings with the USES now.

HUSH, PLEASE HAT a clamor of conflicting counsel, directed to Gen. MacArthur! From the columnists, editorial writers and radio pundits of Washington and New York. The swivel-chair boys telling MacArthur how to get tough with the Japs! Like telling Ty Cobb how to steal third base, or telling Joe Louis how to handle his fists, '

Times

and Mexico, 87 cents a

OUR TOWN— In the Swim

By Anton Scherrer

INDIANAPOLIS had two kinds of kids 60 or so years ago-—those : + © who. were born with the God-given | gift of swimming, and those who had to be taught by Otto Schissel.

|

southeast corner of West and Wabash sts, I usually went by way of Market st. This route took me through an exciting part. of Indianapolis, past the Cyclorama bullding and Fletcher Noe's curio shop, the show window of which was always stocked with arrowheads, postage stamps, birds’ eggs and, like as riot, a breath-taking display of cats’ eyes agates. After that, my route took me through the state house, a brand new building at the time. Emerging by way of the west side steps, the horizon of Indianapolls visibly widened. At that time this part of Market st. consisted of a collection of cute little white painted cottages set close to the street. Except for one important detail, their architecture was not unlike that of hundreds of other houses distributed over town. The Market st. houses differed because of the decorative treatment ‘of thelr front door transoms, the. majority of which were painted a bright red, | Like as not, too, I'd see women with painted faces | sitting at the windows.

Looked, Smelled Strange

OCCASIONALLY I'd even see women with painted faces strutting on the sidewalk, In that case, they nearly always wore clothes much too fancy for street wear, Their hats, too, were fantastic. They were enormously big and invariably decorated with ostrich plumes, a feminine fad that appeared to be confined to this part of town. A penetrating perfume which I since have identified as that of patchoull was also a part of their make-up, I remember, These strange-smelling women never Spoke to us kids. Their behavior struck me as kind of peculiar at the time because in other parts of town-—certainly an the South side—~the women always made an ado over us kids. Thelr lack of interest probably explains why we kids never gave the Market st. women a second thought after we arrived at Mr. Schissel's place. Otto Bchissel's swimming school was the queerest« looking house in Indianapolis. Its length measured. something like 150 feet; its width was that of the canal. Sure, it straddled the stream.” Properly speak= ing, it wasn't a house at all, if by a house we mean something covered with a roof. To be sure Mr, Schissel’s house had enough of a roof to cover the dressing rooms but, except for that, it was open to the Ky. It wasn't much to look at from the outside, but it was a peach of a place on the inside. To get inside, there was an entrance on Wabash st. right around the corner from West st. The door opened onto a little vestibule which had another door leading to the pool. The only other architectural feature was a tiny hole in the wall behind which sat the cashier or In his absence, Mr. Schissel himself. To look at Mr, Schissel’s bearded face peering through the tiny hole, you'd never guess that a stark naked man sat behind the wall—as naked, anyway, as the law permits.

Invented Instruction

MR. SCHISSEL was the first naked man I ever saw—certainly, the first to conduct his business without wearing any clothes, He was a short squatty man whose generous girth more than ‘made up for what hé“lacked in height, which is to say that he had an area of nakedness second to none in Indianapolis, Only a superficial observer would have classified him as a fat man. What looked like fat was for the most part muscle.” Mr, Schissel was, by profession, a teach er of gymnastics who, sometime around 1881 discovered that Indianapolis had an alarming number of boys who didn't know how to swim. Without any help from anybody, he set about to correct this shameful state of aflairs, Mr. Schissel's method of teaching was his own invention. ; He had a stout pole with a rope and a system of pulleys, at the end of which was a harness into which the pupil was strapped. To watch Mr Schissel do it was not unlike seeing a fisherman bait a hook. After the hook was baited, Mr. Schissel pitched the worm into the water and told himi what to do next. It took Mr. Schissel 21 days to teach me the breast stroke. He was a most-thorough teacher. The experiment set father back $3, I remember. After our swimming lessons, we always. went home the same way we came, For some reason, I retain no memory of the Market st. women on any of my return trips. The only way I can explain it is that we kids were always in such a hurry to get to Fletcher Noe's curio shop for another long lingering look at the rare triangular stamp of Good Hope in his show window. I have never run across anybody who knéw more than Mr. Noe about the temptations that beset little boys and who displayed them so

attractively,

" WAR HOUSES—

‘A Surplus -

By Roger W. Stuart

WASHINGTON, Sept, 19.—What to do with nearly a billion dollars’ worth of ‘temporary war housing is puzzling surplus property officials. Nearly 300,000 housing units, built at a cost of $700,000,000, soon will be declared surplus. In addition, there are about 17,000 units built for British workers but which the British have decided they don't want now that they have to pay for them. Q All must be disposed of--but how? J Since they're temporary structures, they can't be sold for permanent housing. The law forbids it. Could they be taken apart and sold for junk? That's one possibility, but if this is done Uncle Sam will get only a small return on his original investment. Much too small to please surplus property officials. The housing units which were intended” for the British are part of a $50,000,000 project sponsored by the foreign economic administration. Before the end of lend-lease, about 10,000 of the houses, built at a cost of §1700 each, were shipped overseas.

Plywood and Composition

THEY were rather flimsy structures, made of plywood and composition materials. They were not ex- | pected to stand up more than a few years at most. The British said they needed them to shelter indus- | trial workers in bombed-out areas until permanent | houses could be built: ' Came the end of lend-lease, however, and the British.called a halt. 80 now it's up to the foreign economic adminis-

Fortunately the general has been too busy to harken | to or heed all the free advice. He has gone along getting | a big job done, subjugating an empire, without further

long-distance critics can create issues.

UPPERS AND JOBS " ONRAD CANTZEN, veteran character actor who died in New York last June, left a trust fund to buy shoes for needy actors. His will explains why, in one of the truest and most poignant sentences we can remember reading in a legal document: “Many times I have been on my uppers, and the thin-

ner the soles of my shoes were, the less courage 1 had to | !P® soon after it is declared” surplus, must be re- : : oo ’ SC. oved from the land f face the managers in looking for’a job. I i an Ig Jt has occupied. : It can be o ; nent housing. ZLE “We could hire con to take the houses PUZZ . | apart,” a spokesman for FHA said. ‘that would | WE VE read for weeks/that almost none of the Germans | cost us a lot, because the units, most of them anyway, id Nazis, to them toll it... Jioula gio} be yorts ‘enough to a contractor to take ow he Japs ar saying they all were working for| Bo FHA is trying to, think up pe ve in ie

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tration to declare the remaining 17,000 houses surplus. Under ordinary circumstances surplus housing is disposed of by the federal housing authority. The housing authority is not keen on handling them. Moreover, the economic administration. has been trying to sell the houses to several foreign gove ernments. So it is likely that the economic administration will handle the deal Some of the units, still in. production, may not be Government men are checking with contractors to determine whether it would be best to call off the work as it stands, .

300,000 Units Built for U.S.

THE 300,000 units built for Americans is some- :

thing which the federal housing authority alone has to worry about. The Lanham act requires that all temporary hous

To get to Mr. Schissel's swimming school at the

Our Changing

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“LETS HAVE MORE WATCHMEN, FEWER COMMUNISTS” By W. H. Stevens, Indianapolis. For quite some time I have been reading the articles written by a gentleman who calls himself the Watchman. j Personally, I think it is about time that the people of America awoke to the fact that we are direly threatened with the complete loss of the great freedoms we have enjoyed for so long. All of our most serious troubles here in the United States have been stirred up by the Communist organization. Racial hitred, labo} disputes, riots and general chaos are the results of the activities of these subversive organizations whose members demand the rights and liberties of loyal American citizens. Several times there have been demands that The Times cease printing the Watchman's letters. For the benefit of the poor, benighted creatures who have made these demands, please let me quote the first article of the amendments to the constitution, which was adopted in 1791; “Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise, thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” Therefore, by the basic laws of our democratic government, the Watchman or any other American citizen has the legal right, by law, to write or say anything he wishes. The law also permits you, Mr. Communist, to file a slander suit against the Watchman, if you can prove that what he has sald is slander. However, he would come nearer proving that your activities are treason, instead of his words being slander, It is a proven fact that the Communists’ activities are trying in every way possible to undermine and déstroy the same laws and government through which they de~ mand the freedom to carry on their subversive work. It is up to the American people to see through these underhanded methods and by supreme loyalty to the constitu tion of the United States help destroy these undesirable organisations which would rob us of our heritage and destroy the great free nation to which our ancestors gave birth in 1776 when our Declaration of Independence was made to the entire world. Come on, America, let's have a few more watchmen and a lot less Communists, or there won't be any America left for any of us.

Forum death

(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious controversies excluded. Because of the volume received, letters should be limited to 250 words. Letters must be signed. Opinions set forth here are those of the writers, and publication in no way implies agreement with those opinions by The Times. The imes assumes no responsibility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

“HE HAD NEVER BEGUN TO LIVE” By A Reader, Indianapolis What selfish things: we humans are, When there is a law passed it's good as long as it doesn't affect us personally, When they started taking married men I told myself that was terrible (I'm married.) I said take single men. Now I have a 17-year-old brother in the marines and after a furlough starting yesterday he goes over for two years. My husband has been pronounced physically unfit so I'd like to believe they should take older men. Isn't that human nature? To be fair with myself I'll have to admit I think why not send the young kids over—it's a wonderful, free education. But why is it so unfair for married men to go. They've had a few years of life and a start in the business world. A year or two after you're 25 isn't nearly as important as before you're 20. An older man has his wife and kids to occupy his mind while he is over and more than likely a job to come back to, But what has a 17 or 18-year-old boy got. I had a brother enlist in the marines at 17. Without a furlough he was sent over, wounded at Guadalcanal, and killed at Tarawa. ‘To his family it seems a shame, he had never lived, never even had a date with a girl There have been so many who stayed at home and made fortunes during this war. They have, or should have, saved enough to keep their family they have accumulated In the last four or five years. They could serve their time now and most of them would be glad to if their wives weren't so selfish. There are plenty who would like to go now since the danger is over, but why say it is or isn't right tp take any one person. Circumstances and our own personal feelings make it fair or unfair, I hate to see my brother give up college, but it isn't unfair that he go.

Side Glances— By Galbraith

me

suggestion is that

: “l wholly disagree with what - you say, but will defend to the

your right to say it.”

“SINGLE SERVICE MEN JUST LIKE THE OTHERS”

By A Mother of a Single Service Man, Indianapolis.

To the Service Man's Wife, Aug. 5, and the Service Man, Aug. 6— what do you thing the single service ‘man 18? Just stop and think. They are men just like you and yours are. They have aching-hearted mothers, sweethearts and their people and friends, too, that they want to come home to and be with as much as you. You selfish crybabies. You cried to draft the single man first, send him overseas first. You married people, and the ones married. to hide themselves, had nerve to say draft the 18-year-old boys first. And then somebody lied and said they would be trained until they were 20 years old; but this very paper reported boys 18 and 19 years old killed in combat. Yes, the single man and boys with the brave married men have won this awful war. My son has put in 21 months on the Pacific islands. On Aug. 14 he was on Okinawa island. He hasn't been a cry-baby and told me all the bad places he has been, but I am sure he didn't just walk over there. He said in his letter this week he had been blessed when he stopped and thought of some of the other boys in his outfit, the 369th infantry. And with the amount of points he had in May, it seems to me your husband wouldh’t have asked for oversea service (be fair now) if he wanted to really help to win the war. No, he was glad to stay on this side. Now you are crying and asking is it fair to release the single man, and seem to think they ought to stay in Japan and in the East and guard the Japs and Germans. My son will be 24 years oid this month and was in service 3 years last month. Now, when do you tHink he ought to come home so he can get married and start a family? He has fought and helped to win the war, When do you think he needs his share of the freedom of the U. 8. A. that he has been talking 80 much about for the last 4 or 5 years. Alright you mothers with single service men, what do you think? nr » . “FACTORIES ARE NOT MADE FOR WOMEN” By Paula Martin, Lapel In answer to Mrs. F. Kennedy of Shelbyville. , Maybe I am only 16, but my father and mother have taught me to think for myself and this is what I have" to say. What do you think men have been fighting a war for? They

didn't fight it to come home to empty houses and have their wives support them. They fought it because they wanted to go back to 4 peaceful home with a wife and perhaps a child or two. They didn't fight it so women could get jobs in factories, but to make a world where you don't have to do such wearying heavy work.. All' you were thinking about, probably, was the new mink coat you could buy this winter, or that lovely dress that cost only about $50. That is exactly what the home front has been fighting—-inflation. You probably don’t need the coat or the dress but they're just nice to have, . Yes, Mrs. Kennedy, I think you

|Aid Needed

“By William Philip Simms A

WORLD AFFAIRS—

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10.—Between the attitude of ex-President Herbert Hoover on billions of post~ war ald to Europe and that of . Prime Minister Clement Attlee’s “ Labor party predecessor, the late Ramsay MacDonald, there is a striking similarity. Speaking at Chicago yesterday as the sole sure viving American official from world war I who coms bined the functions of authority over a portion of the, loans made during and after the first world war,” Mr, Hoover said: “We must help . .. never in human history has there been such imperative need for wisdom and imagination in facing the common ‘probe lems of mankind.” “But,” Mr. Hoover went’ on to say, “if we act

without wisdom and without regard to experience, far

from curing the ills of the world, we will make them only worse."

-| Situation Somewhat Similar

. FACED with a somewhat similar situation, after world war war I, Britain's first Labor premier asked himself rhetorically: “Should Britain leave the European continent to take care of itself?” His answer, like Mr. Hoover's, was: “We cannot.” Howe ever, he added, this was a question “which has to be answered in our own interests.” Mr. Hoover: “Both we and our allies need time to find out the actual needs of borrowing countries.” Mr. MacDonald: “The use to which the loans are to be put should be carefully scrutinized.” . Mr, Hoover: “We cannot afford having our ree sources used to.-Keep up armies to engage in none productive enterprises, to pay debts to other coun= {ries , ,. > Mr. MacDonald: “Whilst Prance is getting a financial grip upon the new states by lending them money to be spent on armaments, not a half-penny | for that purpose would be given or guaranteed by a Labor government.” Mr, Hoover: ‘We should lower the sights as to the size of these credits a long way from current dis | cussion of billions. Four hundred millions worth of | peacetime commodities beyond the natural result of trade is a lot of commodities.” 5] Mr. MacDonald: “These loans can -only reach very modest figures. They can not come like manna from heaven; they ought not be drawn from capital | required for our own need. They can be found only in free balances.”

‘We're Impoverished, Too' . MR. HOOVER: “Europe is much more greatly im= poverished by this war than the last one. But Europe should not ignore the fact that we-also are far more greatly impoverished by this war than the last one.” : : * Mr. MacDonald, (quoting Lord—then Mr.—Keynes approvingly on helping central Europe “to gain its balance”): “A very small, half-charitable loan, on the lines projected for Austria. .. is surely the utmost to be expected in the near future.” ; 3 Mr. Hoover: “I repeat: We must help. We must use common sense; we should limit our help to what | our taxpayers can afford; we should limit our aid to | the minimum necessary; we should limit it to the direct purpose of restoring their domestic needs | through commodities.” ; Mr. MacDonald; “Loans should be strictly for purposes of national recovery, and in their terms show generosity limited only by protection against loss and by just business arrangements.” Like Britain's Labor premier of 20 odd years ago, Mr. Hoover said the world’s needs now “call for concepts of great generosity and tolerance.” But “if we would promote long-view good feeling, we shall require much more realism than the easy road of starry-eyed sentimentalism . . . we should do it,” he concluded, “with the knowledge that we are doing it at a loss to ourselves but to aid mankind to recover from the greatest disaster of all history.” 2

IN WASHINGTON—

Aluminum By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19.—Hav- | #8 ing received seven army-navy E's for excellence in producing over 90 per cent of the aluminum used in the war against the axis, Aluminum Company of America has, in the past week or 80, received as a further tribute from a grateful governs ment four socks in the jaw. Only three have been actually delivered, but the fourth punch has been telegraphed ahead and is now starting its swing from the floor. ’ 1. The Reconstruction Finance Corp. canceled the leases under which Alcoa had been operating five government plants. ' : 2. A senate small business subcommittee, headed by Tom Stewart of Tennessee, issued a report with an 18-point program for disposal’ of light met= als plants, emphasizing that the government should | foster competition to Alcoa. i 3. Attorney General Tom Clark sent a report to congress recommending that Alcoa be broken up into a number of competing companies. . 4. Still to come is a report to congress from the surplus property board, expected to recommend creas tion of private competition to. Alcoa, or, if that cannot be done, continued government operation of plants in competition to Alcoa. >

RFC Outsmarted Itself ANYONE speaking & kind word for a big corporas tion is subject to suspicion in New Deal Washinge ton, but an unbiased conclusion on this "four-way attack on Alcoa is that the government may have outsmarted itself. . When RFC canceled Alcoa's contract to operate’ five government plants, it was anticipated that Alcoa would protest. Alcoa had made offers to buy two ot the plants at Jones Mill and Hurricane Creek, Ark, These are the only offers to buy RFC has received, But RFC decided it could not sell or lease to Alcoa because that would contribute to Alcoa's dominang position in the industry. When Alcoa said “OK” the RFC and surplus property boys were thrown on their haunches. They are now stuck with two more plants which might have been disposed of, Attorney General Clark's report, recommending that Alcoa be dissolved as Standard Ofl was dissolved some years ago, is truly sensational. What is, significant, however, is that in recommending the reorganization of Alcoa into a number of competing companies, the attorney general came to the conclusion that any govenment subsidies; profit guarantees or favorable leases to. competitors of . Alcoa would never solve the problem. “Competition will nevér be-' come healthy enough to stand on its own legs,” wrote the attorney general, “if it is dependent of so much nursing and propping by government.”

Report Snarls Case : " THE QUESTION may be raised as to what right the attorney general has to recommend that any cors poration be dissolved. ‘Not even congress can order a

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BIRTH RA “HIT PEA

Records Broke Since

NEW YORK, Se It isn't only .in America is. exy . bumper crop of bs The national bir first spurt in 1941 congress adopted t fce law, Tt was f since the first wor The rate contin 1942 and 1943 des) shortage of hosp! scarcity of obstet there was 293517 the United States~ The 1944 figure: yet but it was es bring a new reco broken in turn by the birth rate pa onds world war fo first the figure wi peak in 1948. - Lying-In It was three ye war—after almos and sailors were seas duty—that a was made, The greatest j war was in 104 Pearl Harbor, wi creased from 18. sand to 21.- Tt babies born that In 1043 the rate ternity hospitals liveries as much ! advance. The I most cities was ¢ days—less if ti strong enough to The hospital ported just as’f was very little ck ing up for -sevel managers said it war salaries and for service men. to have their ba taking advantag care and service pitals.

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Five I In Boston Ww period always I period was cut days. Some hos phia, where m booked seven ar advance, release after their babie In Dallas, Te: shooed home at if they are stro New Orleans, Cl phia reported ! their city birth Washington no increases for year over 1944, | the peak mont Pear] Harbor h St. Louis, whe 25 per cent ah ures, hospitals dates three mo York the rate c 14.4 per thousal 1943. All over the ¢ doctors debunk war brings a ! boys’ births, remained abou out the war wi by a normal mi

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PARIS, Spt. redeployment army divisions 17th Airborn Arrived in U. 6th and 141] seas. 63d Infantr ‘regiments in U ing shipment; from Le Havr 5th Armored Awaiting shij staging area. 10th Armort command. 9th Armore seilles staging 99th Infantr Marseilles; 39: elements sail ments sched Sept. 19. Sth and 1 for movement

“YOUTH H TO NA

Organizers Youth Hostel apolis will m at the Cen nominate of group. The organi. to provide c bicyclists, h groups on | Sunday, 65 r ness groups, recreational temporary b the local con

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. Lynhurst aw ecard party at Food Craft sh chairman.

Irvington le will have inith